


First sight

by antennapedia



Series: Owned [2]
Category: Doctor Who (2005), The Thick of It (TV)
Genre: F/M, Love at First Sight
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-14
Updated: 2016-05-14
Packaged: 2018-06-08 08:16:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6846667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/antennapedia/pseuds/antennapedia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Malcolm's first encounter with Clara: five foot one and in the ring with the heavyweights of econ.</p>
            </blockquote>





	First sight

**Author's Note:**

> A little backstory snippet to prove I have not forgotten this story.

The economist tasked with telling them the bad news about the upcoming study was a woman. A policy wonk from deep in the bowels of the Party somewhere. Malcolm had no idea where they'd dredged her up from. Not one of Tom's hires. Tom didn't hire women in roles where they were expected to think. It was a fucking problem, always having to remind the cunt that fifty percent of the voting public existed. The woman-- one of Brown's finds, probably-- was short and snub-nosed and surprisingly unaffected by the fact that she was in Downing Street sitting at a table with the heavyweights of finance. Some of them quite literally heavyweights.

Malcolm leaned back against the wall, where he was out of sight and out of mind, and watched her fence.

"Their brief was to use the best current financial models and project the effects of the spending cuts on overall employment rate. They did so. My analysis of their modeling is that it's sound. The cuts would likely have the effect they project."

Malcolm's thumb slipped up to his mouth and he chewed on the nail. Not backing down even in the face of quite obvious pressure to do so. Sure of her ground. Of herself. Oh, fuck, she was a marvel. Not long for this job, probably, not with her refusal to tell Beckett what he wanted to hear. Brown had a tiny smile on the corner of her mouth, though. Yeah, that was Oswald's ally in this room.

He pulled his phone out of his pocket and texted a question to Jamie. _who the fuck is clara fucking oswald?_

The phone vibrated in his hand moments later. _Boffin from London schl econ. known ice queen. want dirt?_

He texted back a pithy and obscene negative and dragged his attention back to the room.

The ice queen was saying, "The research doesn't back that statement."

Ice, yeah. A lot of fire too. And steel. All the fucking elements in one short package. She wasn't Malcolm's type. Malcolm's type was tall, blonde, and journalist. Except-- well, maybe his type was feisty boffin who could throw daggers with her eyes. Shit.

Julius opened his trap. "Perhaps if you looked at different research."

Clara turned her head toward Baldymorte for a moment, then very deliberately turned away from him to address Tom. "I suggest you simply deal with the projections as they are. If they're not acceptable, find a policy that produces results you would find acceptable."

"We could suppress the report," Baldymorte said.

"Suppress academic research?" Malcolm said. The meeting shifted uneasily in its seats. The braver ones of them turned and looked at him where he lurked against the wall. "Or you could dice up a baby and toss it into a shark tank. That would have the same fucking effect on the news cycle."

"Going to spin it for us, Tucker?" Tom said. Laughter in the room.

"That's where this has been fucking going for the last ten minutes, yeah."

"We'll leave you and Miss Oswald to it, then."

Shit. Shit. She'd turned and was looking at him. Cool, calculating, unimpressed. Malcolm froze in place and then pulled himself together and gave her his most charming smile. Yeah, pretty face, pretty brain, but she was just another political hack to be shoved into line. He had to remind himself of that. She was in politics. She was a sheep he had to drive into place by snarling. There was no way she'd have the time of day for him.

Shit.


End file.
